Friday 12 March 2010

Tour part 2

Fri 12th, 2:15pm. We are just setting off back to Puno. I dozed on the trip out here, I thought I would be the only one but when I sort of woke up I saw other people doing the same.

We came to Isla Taquile, the third or fourth largest island in the lake. Walked up one side (seemed like miles), had a look around the town square then had a fairly decent lunch (some sort of vegetable soup and grilled trout with chips and rice) for 15 sols (or should I say soles?), which seems pretty cheap, especially compared to the boat trip earlier. :-)

We then walked down the other side of the island to meet the boat. This was some stairs which may be moderately well known, I think someone said there were 500-odd. I didn't count. It felt a bit of a cheat to be doing them downhill but I guess we paid in advance by coming up the other side of the island.

Still dithering madly about what to do about the onward trip. Particularly annoying that when we get back to Puno I need to go back to the hostel, then go get my money changed, then maybe get a bloody cab over to the bus station to buy a ticket for tomorrow, then another cab back. I am almost certainly going to Arequipa tomorrow whatever, if nothing else I gather from conversation today you can get cheap-ish flights from there to Santiago.

The idea of going down through Argentina to Mendoza (thereby avoiding any disaster-stricken areas) and then crossing from there to Santiago occurs to me.

I think if I am going to try for Nazca I need to go to Arequipa anyway, and I would also expect there to be more buses from there than from Puno.

I may try to have a quick chat with the hostel owner when I get back tonight to see if he has any advice.

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